ASUS M4A89TD-Pro/USB 3.0 Motherboard

   AMD and Intel are the two biggest CPU and chipset makers in the world with each making specific motherboard chipsets for their CPUs. The ultimate goal is to provide a complete solution with the CPU, the graphics chip, the North and Southbridges all gone with a single chip replacing them all. Intel has launched the Clarkdale CPU series with integrated graphics on the die, meaning that the Northbridge on those CPUs are no longer there.

 

   
















AMD has a project called Fusion which will also integrate their integrated graphics onto the CPU, allowing users to purchase a CPU with graphics, and the I/O controller, the SATA controller and much more. It should be interesting to see how the market evolves in the future. The best solution for gaming has always been to add an external graphics card to the motherboard to improve graphics performance. 

   AMD recently launched the 8 series chipsets to coincide with the launch of their six core CPUs, the Phenom II X6 1090T and 1055T. The new features of these chipsets include a new integrated graphics chip and support for USB 3.0. There are four chipsets in the 8-series family: 890FX, 890GX, 880G and the 870. The highest end 8 series chipset is the 890FX. Today’s review is on the M4A89TD-Pro/USB 3.0 board from ASUS based upon AMD’s 890FX chipset. 

Features:

• AMD AM3 Phenom II/Athlon II/Sempron 100 Series Processors
• CrossfireX Support
• AMD 890FX Chipset
• PCIe 2.0 support
• HDMI Support
• DVI Support
• True USB 3.0 support
• True SATA 6Gb/second support
• Dual Channel DDR3 2000 (O.C.)/1333/1066 support
• Core Unlocker
• Turbo Key II
• TurboV EVO
• Turbo Unlocker
• Auto Tuning
• GPU Boost
• CPU Level Up
• Express Gate
• ASUS 8+2 Phase Power
• MemOK!
• EPU
• ASUS Fanless Design
• Fan Xpert
• EZ Flash 2
• CrashFree BIOS 3
• OC Profile
• Power eSATA
• ASUS Q-Connector
• DTS
• S/PDIF-out on back I/O
• High Definition Audio
• Noise Filter
• RoHS

 

Part Number	M4A89TD PRO/USB 3
Manufacturer	ASUS
Chipset	890FX
Northbridge	890FX
Socket	AM3
Memory speed	DDR3 2000 (OC)/1333/1066/800
Processor Types	Phenom II/Athlon II/ Sempron 100 Up to 6 core
Number of CPUs	1
QPI	5200MT/s
Memory Typ	e DDR3
Memory Channels	Double
Maximum Memory	16GB
External Graphics	PCI Express x16 x2
IGP	N/A
South Bridge	SB 850
Audio	8-channel
IDE	133/100/66
SCSI	None
SATA	6Gb/second
RAID	0, 1, 0+1, 5, 10
LAN	10/100/1000 4 LAN Ports
Firewire	IEEE 1394a
USB	USB 3.0
BIOS	AMIBIOS
Form Factor	ATX

   The M4A89TD Pro/USB 3.0 motherboard is based upon the AMD 890FX chipset which is the fastest chipset on the AMD platform. The motherboard uses the 890FX and SB 850 chipset combination that is the high end of the AMD platform much like the 890GX is the high end on the integrated graphics chips.

   To the right of the CPU Socket is where the 4-pin fan header is for the CPU cooler. Under the CPU Socket are four DIMM slots for up to 16GB of DDR3 memory. ASUS says the boards supports DDR3-2000MHz memory but note that the CPU has had the memory controller since the Athlon 64 was launched and is limited to 1333MHz without overclocking. The memory slots are arranged in alternating colors. Installing memory in two like colored slots results in dual channel memory.

  













  Continuing on the right side of the board there are two Dip switches which are the Turbo Key II and Core Unlocker. Assuming you have a 3 core CPU that can be unlocked, it will turn your 3 core CPU into a 4 core CPU. Simply flip the switch and the CPU cores are unlocked. The Turbo Key II Dip Switch enables the Turbo Key (Power button by default) to automatically overclock the CPU based upon load. The next button is the MEMOK! button on the bottom of the board which sets memory settings to a default set of parameters useful when the memory causes a problem.

   Next to the MemOK! button is a COM1 header. The next item is a 24-pin power connector. A legacy IDE port with a sideways facing orientation is next. ASUS includes six SATA 6 Gb/second ports for the storage. Note that the SB850 Southbridge supports SATA 6 Gb/second ports so all ports on this board are SATA 6 GB/second ports. The next item is the SB850 Southbridge which is covered by another purple heatsink above the IDE controller. The left side of the board starts off with the FP I/O with everything labeled for easy installation.

   Three USB headers are next followed by a IEEE-1394 header and. Note that AMD and Intel have not implemented USB 3.0 into their chipsets as of yet and motherboard manufacturers have to use bridge chips or take PCI Express lanes from the chipset or CPU (Intel Arrandale) to get the necessary bandwidth for full USB 3.0. ASUS implements a PLX bridge chip which have an x4 PCIe interface to provide the necessary bandwidth for USB 3.0. There is an S/PDIF Out header followed by the AAFP header is next.

   The board has two PCI Express x16 slots each of which is Generation 2.0. This allows the graphics card to have up to 5GB of bandwidth at x16 speed, or 2.5GB/second when two cards are installed in CrossfireX at x8 each. There is plenty of spacing between the two graphics card slots for dual-slot Crossfire cards like the HD 5970 to be installed. Also on the board are a single PCIe x1 slot, a PCI Express x4 slot and two legacy PCI slots. 

   The onboard audio is provided by a Realtek ALC892 CODEC. This is the latest audio solution from Realtek and has been included on several of the newer motherboards. The ALC892 is a fully High Definition Audio compliant sound solution and is capable of doing 7.1 surround sound+2 additional channels for multi-streaming. The Rear I/O on the board consists of a PS/2 keyboard connector, a PS/2 Mouse connector six USB 2.0 ports, an external SATA/USB combo port, two USB 3.0 ports, and six audio jacks for the ALC892 and an S/PDIF port.